Delve too deeply into any “best-of” list of comics, and you’re likely to have an unpleasant discovery: some of the greatest works produced in the medium are unavailable, and have been for years.
Occasionally, this is just the industry’s own doltishness. When Marvel can’t even keep in print Guardians of the Galaxy, a critically-acclaimed space-opera published just four years ago and in the process of being made into a major film, I despair. (A hardback of volume two of the series is selling for £60 second hand at the moment).
But sometimes, it’s less in the hands of the industry. For various reasons, some books which ought never to have fallen out of print have become untouchable. And there’s almost a holy trinity within that category, three books which new comics fans were forever being told “you should read these – but you can’t”: Flex Mentallo, Marvelman and Zenith.
But the ice seems to be thawing. After years in limbo, there’s now hope on the horizon.
Flex Mentallo is actually already back in print. The book, the first major collaboration between Scotland’s Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, spins off Morrison’s earlier work for DC, Doom Patrol. Starring Flex Mentallo, a man who can twist reality with just a twitch of his muscles, the book is a metatextual riff on what superhero comics meant to a young Morrison.
It was also held up for years by a law suit with Charles Atlas, he of the “I Can Make YOU a New Man” adverts. Flex was clearly a take-off of Atlas, right down to starring in a parody of his ads, but rather that fight for the right to lampoon, a scared DC agreed not to reprint the book – an agreement which held for two decades.
Next on the horizon seems to be Marvelman. This Alan Moore comic, illustrated by a who’s who of the 1980s best artists, has been trapped in a quagmire for years. Firstly, there’s Moore himself, who, burnt by the mainstream comics industry over and over, wants nothing to do with any of it. Then there’s Marvel, who forced the character’s name to be changed to “Miracleman” when it was launched in the US, and recently bought up the rights to the 1950s series it was based on. Next, Neil Gaiman gets involved, having had the rights transferred to him – apparently – by Moore when he took over writing the series in 1990. After that, Todd McFarlane, the illustrator of Spawn and one of the founders of Image Comics, bought Eclipse, Marvelman’s publishers, and – look, it’s an omnishambles, OK?
But Marvel has been working behind the scenes trying to clear up the rights, and the hope is that they’re getting closer than ever before to actually having it in the bag. Marvelman has been out of print for too long already, so it would be great to see it back on the shelves.
But what of the last of the three? Zenith, Grant Morrison’s first major work, co-created with Brendan McCarthy and Steve Yeowall, is a distinctly un-heroic superhero. Exploring ideas of generational inheritance, fame, and iconography, it has been out of print for the more prosaic reason that no-one has been able to sort out who owns it. Rebellion, publishers of 2000 AD, where the character originally appear, claim it’s them, Morrison that it’s him.
But I’ve heard through the grapevine that that might be cleared up – and sooner than I thought. Rebellion aren’t talking, but turning up to C2E2. the Chicago comic-con, wearing Zenith t-shirts (as seen in the pic at the top, there) could be interpreted as a pretty big wink in that direction. I’d say “wait and see”; just, don’t go dropping £100 on a complete set on eBay any time soon. You’ll be kicking yourself if I’m right…
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